Cottingley fairies photos to go up for auction

The photographs are expected to fetch a lot of money at auction. Image Credit: Elsie Wright / PD

The original photographs at the center of one of the 20th century's most infamous hoaxes could fetch over $90k.

The story of the Cottingley fairies came from the unlikeliest of sources - two young cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffith, from Cottingley, England.

The pair, who would often play near a stream at the bottom of Elsie's mother's garden, claimed that there were fairies living there. To prove it, Elsie one day borrowed her father's camera and the girls spent 30 minutes taking pictures of them.

The photographs, which were considered highly convincing at the time, went public in mid-1919 and quickly become famous across the country. Many believed the fairies to be real, including author and spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who included the photos in a magazine article he'd written.

The mystery of the Cottingley fairies would go on to endure for over 60 years until finally, in 1983, the two cousins admitted that the photographs had been faked using cut-out illustrations from a book.

Both however remained adamant that they had genuinely seen fairies at the bottom of the garden.

Now, 100 years on from when they were originally published, the photographs are set to go under the hammer at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, Gloucestershire on April 11th.

"I think the contact prints of the fairies are incredibly significant photographs within the context of this remarkable story," said photography specialist Chris Albury.

"The first one of Frances and the Fairy Ring is perhaps the most important single photograph in existence relating to this drama."

The posture, theres something about these fairies to indicate a non human gait. They didn't have material to make such authentic looking wings at the time. The musculature is easily observable. This is beyond the ability of special effects people of the time (when you consider how phoney planet of the apes looks decades later). It's not cgi. They are beyond the size range of modern humans, no one could fit into such costumes. In fact, no one has ever been able to find the costumes. I think I know an anthropologist who might be interested in this.

actually i wonder are they really "the" orginals, remember the photo expert guy found the touched up negatives in some museum, anyhoo, since i dont have a materialistic ego and bragging rights mean zero i had planned for a spell to do a project of many old photos like that, old crypto fakes etc, do high end prints then age them toss them in old cool frames and great for my walls,